Chapter V

Our Kingdom is not of this World

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews.¹⁹

John 18:36

If His kingdom were of this world, then for what kingdom would His servants fight - for a kingdom of this world. Then the man who fights for a kingdom of this world, who contends for supremacy and power in a kingdom of this world, and works for a place in a kingdom of this world, denies his connection with the kingdom of Jesus Christ. For Christ's kingdom is not of this world. But this is what these church leaders are doing who are leading in this National Reform movement. They seek to take possession of the kingdoms of this world, to rule the governments of this world and to fight for the governments of this world. Therefore they proclaim with the loudest voice possible that they are of this world and not of the kingdom of Christ at all.

There was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.²⁰

Luke 22:24-26

There was a strife among them concerning which should be greatest in the kingdom which they expected Christ to set up. They expected it would be a kingdom of this world and they expected they would have a place. There was a strife among them regarding that expected kingdom. It was a mistaken idea, to be sure, with respect to the kingdom, but the lesson that he gave them upon it is applicable in all cases of the kind:

And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.²¹

Luke 22:25

Factors, benefactors, agents of good! That is what these church leaders now profess to be. They claim to be agents of good to the country, to the people. They are working for the redemption of cities, States, and nations. Would they not be called benefactors? "But ye shall not be so." Ye shall not exercise authority and lordship over one another in the Church, in the place where you belong. Why then are these church leaders exercising authority and lordship over people in a place where they do not belong?